new workstation

[alikashan]

hi guys

i want to buy a new workstation for my max work.

can you help me with it.

specially about the V.J card and processor mother board and ram.

well these are the main parts of c.p.u

i am in a hurry,

regards

ali kashan

[AJLynn]

What's your budget and what do you work with? Are you looking for a machine to do your modeling and then use distributed rendering to share the rendering workload, or one machine to do all the work?

 

For a value system, an AthlonX2 is great, along with a midrange video card (Quadro 1400, FireGL V5000 or 5100) or a higher end consumer-level card (Geforce 6800 or 7800 series) - depends on the complexity of your modeling - and 2GB of RAM is pretty standard these days. For higher-end, if you want a lot of rendering power in one box, dual-dual Opterons is the way to go. I use a P4-2.8 with 2GB and a FireGL V5100, and more boxes for distributed rendering when I need it, and it handles anything I throw at it.

[alikashan]

What's your budget and what do you work with? Are you looking for a machine to do your modeling and then use distributed rendering to share the rendering workload, or one machine to do all the work?

For a value system, an AthlonX2 is great, along with a midrange video card (Quadro 1400, FireGL V5000 or 5100) or a higher end consumer-level card (Geforce 6800 or 7800 series) - depends on the complexity of your modeling - and 2GB of RAM is pretty standard these days. For higher-end, if you want a lot of rendering power in one box, dual-dual Opterons is the way to go. I use a P4-2.8 with 2GB and a FireGL V5100, and more boxes for distributed rendering when I need it, and it handles anything I throw at it.

 

hi

ajlynn i dont have a free budget but quite a good one and i am not an athlon user so of you say that what is the best intel processor i think it will do for me and my modelling isnt very complex actually.

regards

[STRAT]

i dunno why peeps rave about video cards. the bog standard that comes with a pc today is more than adequate for 3d.

[AJLynn]

Currently, the AMD options outperform the Intel options, which is why I mentioned AMD chips. I've seen Intel Xeon dual-dual (two dual-core CPUs, 4 CPU cores total, and Hyperthreading is not the same as dual-core) 2.8GHz systems (Dell has one) but the dual-dual Opterons are faster and less expensive. Either is good but the Opterons will cut your render times. Unless you have a good reason for using Intel only.

 

Either way, with a large budget go dual-dual with at least 2 gigs of RAM, RAID hard drives, Quadro FX 1400+ or FireGL V5100+, and don't skimp on the monitor. Boxx is one of the better vendors.

[AJLynn]

i dunno why peeps rave about video cards. the bog standard that comes with a pc today is more than adequate for 3d.

 

I dunno, I tried doing my modeling on a Radeon last semester and as soon as it got complicated it started wheezing. Granted they're a lot better than a few years ago (Max on my old laptop with a 16MB Mobility card was just painful) but if you've got a large budget and you're paying these outrageous workstation prices, and you can get some productivity boost from a better card, I think it makes sense.

 

BTW, Ali, maybe I misread your line about your budget - if you want to save some money, forget Boxx but go with a normal PC vendor with a good warranty, get a consumer dual-core system (I still recommend AthlonX2 over Pentium D) and a higher-end Geforce card, and set your software for DirectX display mode. Manually run Windows Update to make sure you have the newest DirectX release, which works well with the newest Geforce cards.

[AJLynn]

Well, there are three main drawbacks to these Alienwares: expense, travel weight and battery life. You're paying a lot for a computer that's not so much a mobile as something you can carry from one place with a desk and AC power to another, risking a shoulder sprain If you don't mind this, it's a great computer. The AthlonX2 is probably the right choice - the main advantage of the Opterons is that you can use more than one of them, which doesn't seem to apply here. (I may be wrong - do they actually make these beasts with dual socket motherboards??) Again, QuadroFX 1400 vs. Geforce 6800 - paying more for the 7800 than the 1400 is ridiculous - is up to you. Do you do complex enough modeling to make it worth $300? Compare the speed of these cards to whatever you use now and decide for yourself.

 

RAID 0 (striped) is a technology that uses two hard drives with a controller that makes them appear to Windows as one hard drive (e.g. 2x80GB with RAID is a 160GB drive). The speed advantage comes from the controller's ability to split the work between the drives - when you write a 20MB file, 10MB goes to each drive simultaneously, making the RAID almost twice as fast as a single drive. I use this on my studio desktop and it's definitely worthwhile, but in a laptop, it means you're using twice as much power on hard drives, so less battery time and more heat.

 

Speaking of heat, if you have these you're going to need one of these laptop coolers they sell at CompUSA - I think it's made by Antec, and it's basically a box that goes between your desk and your laptop with some fans in it to provide extra cooling. Also, these laptops should never be placed on top of your lap. They are hot enough to impair your ability to reproduce. (Really.)

[AJLynn]

That's the laptop my program started recommending/selling/pushing this year, so I know several people who have it. It's fast - not going to render like an AthlonX2, but the Quadro is hella fast and for the difference in price you can also buy an AthlonX2 desktop and farm the renders

 

The biggest negative impression I have of it is build quality. It's built better than my M50 and way better than the 5000e I had a few years ago, but it's still got a bit of that good old Dell low quality feel - hard to describe exactly what that means, but if you've been around a lot of Dells you know what I'm talking about.

 

But if you've decided on a workstation video card, there aren't a heck of a lot of options, and the Dell build isn't a dealbreaker, just get a good carrying case and the on-site warranty. Also take a look at the Thinkpads. They're solid, and they have models with FireGL and just announced a Core Duo box.

[AJLynn]

There aren't any obvious holes in that config, except that for that kind of money you should get a DVD burner or at least a CD burner. Do you use 1394 and Bluetooth? Actually I'm surprised they don't include 1394 - mine has it built in but not having a digital camcorder the only thing I ever figured out to do with it is really fast networking. Only way I can see to save money is by getting it with one 1GB DIMM and buying the second from Newegg.

 

I'm not sure how these work with multiple batteries - it sounds like you can't put 2 primary batteries in at the same time but I'm not sure about that.

 

Keep in mind that this is cheaper than what you were talking about before but still expensive - if you don't need the Quadro there are a lot of much less expensive ways of getting the same performance.

 

Edit: Case in point: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115226

[AJLynn]

You're welcome. Go Steelers.

[AJLynn]

If it's a Dell company and they're okay with the price it's the way to go. Good luck with the new job.

[Greg Hess]

Bump it to 2 ghz. It's only another 140 dollars. Remember its two processors, so its 140 USD more for another 260 megahertz. Heck if it's a mobile workstation, go all out . Remember that cpu speed effects EVERY computer component, while things like video and ram only determine the speed of certain applications.

[vodka79]

What will be a good option for render box?

[tecton3d]

I pieced together an Athlon X2 based system for somewhere between $600 and $700 when I was thinking about building such a thing... note, that's about as low as it goes and it may be well worth it to put a little more into a system with a higher quality mobo for X2 overclocking potential... those chips overclock like monsters and 2gb ram - depending on scene complexity.

 

 

Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 Socket 939 ULi M1689 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Model #: GA-K8U-939

Item #: N82E16813128307

 

DIAMOND S60AGP Radeon 7000 32MB DDR AGP 2X/4X Video Card - Retail

Model #: S60AGP

Item #: N82E16814103151

In Stock

 

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

Model #: ADA3800BVBOX

Item #: N82E16819103562

** This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only.

In Stock

 

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

Model #: VS1GBKIT400

Item #: N82E16820145440

In Stock

 

Seagate U Series X 20 ST320014A 20GB 5400 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

Model #: ST320014A

Item #: N82E16822148051

In Stock

 

LITE-ON Black IDE CD Burner Model SOHR-5239V BK RT - Retail

Model #: SOHR-5239V BK RT

Item #: N82E16827106997

In Stock

 

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Model #: SLK3000-B

Item #: N82E16811129152

 

 

. . . these specs are about 2 months old so prices may have dropped since then : )

[tecton3d]

Since the Opteron price drop:

 

cd burner:

LITE-ON Black IDE CD Burner Model SOHR-5239V BK RT - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16827106997

 

case:

CHENMING CMUI-P-601AEB-0 Black 1.0mm SECC Server Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16811125480

 

Hard Drive:

Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16822144102

 

Vid Card:

SAPPHIRE 100945L-BK Radeon 7000 64MB DDR PCI Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814102447

 

Motherboard:

ASUS K8N-DL Dual Socket 940 NVIDIA nForce4 Professional

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813131059

 

Power supply:

AMS PP-5503EPS EPS12V 550W Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817101108

 

HSF:

Scythe FCS-50 Heatlane CPU Cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16835185107

 

Memory (x2):

CORSAIR 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) ECC Registered

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820145309

 

Alright ~ I got Lazy and Newegg'd everything... shop around (and e-baying) and you may be able to get for closer to $600:

----- $661 subtotal

----- $719 shipped

 

above system w/ MSI K8T Master2-FAR7 and 20gh HD = closer to $626 subtotal

 

cheap: Asus K8N-DL with 265 processors @ 307 each = 614 + 661 = $1275

cheapest: MSI K8T Master2-FAR7 with 20 gb hd and 265's @ 307 each = 614 + 626 = $1240